The Islamic Calendar according to Muslims in the UK 1

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THE INSTITUTE FOR THE REVIVAL OFTRADITIONAL ISLAMIC SCIENCESattempt a sighting, this time two others joined, engineer Khaleel Torden and AbuZaruse Qudrat. We did not observe any signs of the hilāl on this night. If it wassighted on 22 nd surely it would have been sighted on the 23 rd ?What is also startling is that on the 22 nd of August there was a solar eclipse 2 whichwas witnessed by many cities in America. The sighting of the hilāl on an occasion ofsolar eclipse is impossible. The solar eclipse was witnessed by millions, hence howcan testimonies of two unidentified individuals of an impossible sighting beacceptable?3. 1 st of Muharram 1412 declared in KSA when there was a solar eclipse in Hawaii and1 st of Rajab declared when there was a solar eclipse in America. (Kacholwi cited inRangooni, 2006, p. 27)4. A number of newspapers have challenged the declaration of the hilāl but could notbe independently verified by the author as either the link doesn’t work or specificdetails have not been supplied. A number of comments are based upon thepossibility of sighting due to astronomical data which Position One rejects, but asmentioned before is accepted or majority of the year due to lack o information fromKSA.Dr Salih a member of the six-member Saudi Moon Sighting Committee is notsatisfied with the decisions of the Supreme Council. (Daily Jang, 11 th October 2005)Dr Ali Muhammad al-Shukri, Chairman of the Department of Physics, Saudi Arabiastated that it is not possible for Ramaḍān to start before Wednesday the 5 th ofOctober 2005, “i.e. the moon can only be sighted in Saudi on the eve of Tuesday the4 th of October because it will be over 29 hours old and 7.4 degrees above thehorizon.” (Daily Jang, 11 th October 2005). Fasting was started on Tuesday.Gulf News reported Rania Habib on 4 th October 2006 declares that Ramadan 1427 wasincorrectly declared as it was impossible to see on Saturday 23 rd September 2006http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/10/04/10072189.html (could not access)5. Hilal Sighting in Saudi Arabia - A First Hand Report – Dr Salman Z. ShaikhShaikh spent five years in KSA between the years 1995-2000 (1416-21AH). Thefollowing are extracts from his report. The source of Umm al-Qura is KACST andwhen Shaikh met with them he found a change in computational criteria had beenmade from 1420AH and further changes were planned in 1423AH (his findingscorrelate with Odeh’s findings above). The authors of Umm al-Qura are well awarethat the moonset has to be after the sunset by a long time for it to be observed. Butthe purpose of Umm al-Qura is not to predict the hilāl but for civil and ministrypurposes for setting official dates. Around 1419AH the Saudi Government set sixhilāl sighting committees due to the complaints of the errors. Each committee wasmade up of; a member of Qaḍā (Islamic scholar/Justice department), one member ofKACST/astronomer, one member of Imāra (ruling council of the city), andvolunteers. There are now nine such places which the hilāl committees go on every2Author has confirmed solar eclipse.20 | W W W . I R T I S . O R G . U K
THE INSTITUTE FOR THE REVIVAL OFTRADITIONAL ISLAMIC SCIENCES29 th day of the Umm al-Qura calendar since 2009 (1430), Makka, Madina, Riyadh,Shaqra, Sudayr, Burayda, Dammam, Hail and Tabuk. Prior to this it was just for themonths of Ibada in six areas – Makka, Riyadh, Qassim, Hail, Tabuk and Asir. Howeverthese committees do not have exclusive jurisdiction therefore if any Muslim makesa claim of sighting the hilāl then the Justice department can accept it. Therefore,the new moon has been declared many times yet the hilāl committees have notsighted it (even taking their highly powerful telescopes into consideration –Author). I will quote Shaikh’s statement if full with regard to Eid al-Fitr 1420 AHIn the case of Eid-ul-Fitr 1420 AH, I myself went with the Makkah committeeto a sighting point on a hilltop of Shamesi outside the city of MakkahMukarramah on Thursday evening. Neither I, nor the other 5 committeemembers sighted the Hilal. But we came back to the Haram Shareef and wereastounded to hear the announcement that Eid-ul-Fitr was next day (Friday).In fact moonset was before sunset in Makkah for Thursday evening. In thiscase the error was quite brazen. Later I learned that Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa indicating that Muslims who celebrated Eid 1420 AHon Friday following the Saudi announcement should make up one missedRamadan fast.Further, the solar eclipse of Feb 5, 2000 also proved the mistake in Eid date,according to Sheikh Al-Othaimeen’s fatwa, which implies that if there is asolar eclipse anywhere in the world after sunset in your city, then next dayis not the 1 st of lunar month for your city.I also learned that apparently it is the same few people at certain locations,reporting on those occasions when the claims are extraordinarily early inSaudi Arabia, year after year. WAllahu A’alamWhile Saudi Astronomers are quite aware of the problems, there seemed tobe negligible awareness in the community at large. But that is changing. Isaw an excellent article in Arab News of February 11, 2000 about theinaccuracy of Eid-ul-Fitr 1420 AH. Subsequently I also saw nice articles inArabic in Ad-Dawah magazine, 6 Shawwal 1420 AH etc., and the article ofSheikh Al-Manea (of Makkah Al-Mukarramah) in Al-Jazeerah, December 12,1999. So while the coverage was still limited, at least there was someacknowledgement of the errors, albeit not officially. (Shaikh, 2000)He does state that due to the awareness which has been raised due to erroneouswitnessing the situation is improving as in Eid al-Fitr 1421AH several earlywitnesses were turned down due to the solar eclipse. But this is no guarantee of achange as a solar eclipse had to occur in order for the judges to determine the error;without a solar eclipse there would be no other way.In fact this last point Shaikh makes is interesting as it clearly demonstrates thatwitnessing can be refused based on other information.21 | W W W . I R T I S . O R G . U K
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